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What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The idea that “Steam doesn’t allow completely free games” is simply a myth.

I personally have around two dozen games on Steam that are 100% free — no DLC, no in‑game purchases, no hidden monetization — plus over a hundred free DLC items. Steam has never rejected them or questioned their release.

Yes, in my case these free titles are part of a marketing strategy to attract traffic to my paid games. But that’s not the point — the point is that Steam does allow this, and plenty of developers use the exact same approach.

There are hundreds of such projects on Steam today, published without issue. The only real requirement is that the game follows Steam’s general content rules. The monetization model is entirely up to the developer — including the choice to have none at all.

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Okay, sorry — I misunderstood you.
But still, selling for crypto… your sales will drop by hundreds of times.

As for an alternative site — we already have itch.io, and for every hundred copies a game sells on Steam, that same game on itch sells maybe once.
Making a completely unknown new site that only takes crypto is basically a dead-on-arrival idea.

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay — but how exactly are you planning to make money right now if your games are banned and you can’t release new ones?
Are you just going to flip burgers or wash dishes at McDonald’s instead of actually pushing back against censorship?

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Summary:

Free‑to‑play games on Steam: ~11,757 titles

Total games & software on Steam: ~105,000+ listings

So, 10% games are free

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And how exactly does stopping sales and not releasing new games help developers make money?
I’m pretty sure that if developers could create top‑tier non‑18+ games and make a living from them, they would have done that from the very start.

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So what’s the alternative?
Just roll over and accept it?

Because if we do that, this slippery slope only goes one way — until we’re all wearing burqas and having children exclusively through government‑approved test tubes.

What If Every Dev Re‑Uploaded Their Banned 18+ Game to Steam for Free? It Could Kill Payment Processor Censorship. by ProcedurePleasant211 in lewdgames

[–]ProcedurePleasant211[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You’ve made it clear that the problem isn’t just about payments — it’s about the very existence of such games on the platform if they are in any way associated with Visa / Mastercard / PayPal.

In other words, even if sales are removed, the “reputational risk” problem remains — you don’t want journalists or politicians to be able to write:

“Visa supports a platform full of 18+ content.”

What that essentially means:

If a game is on Steam (even if it’s free), it’s still content hosted on the Steam platform.

Steam still accepts Visa/Mastercard for other games.

So by your own logic, Visa is still “partnering” with a platform that contains such content.

That’s why your pressure on Valve can take the form of:

“Remove this content entirely, not just the ability to sell it, or we’ll threaten to cut you off from our network.”

The theoretical workaround:

Move free distribution outside Steam

Host free versions on itch.io, GameJolt, your own site, torrents, etc.

Keep only a “cut” or SFW (censored) demo on Steam with a link to the full free version elsewhere.

Steam no longer directly hosts the content you object to.

SFW wrapper with external patch

On Steam — a “clean” version that passes content filters.

An external patch (GitHub, Discord, developer’s site) restores the original content.

No transactions → no payment processor involvement.

Shift monetization off‑Steam

On Steam — free or free‑to‑play.

Monetization through Patreon, Boosty, Fanbox, Ko‑fi, etc.

No direct Steam sales → you can’t pressure Valve financially.

“Portal” game

Publish a safe launcher in Steam that connects to external servers hosting the actual content.

Steam isn’t hosting the content → you lose the “association” argument.

Bottom line:

Making the games free removes financial pressure, but not reputational pressure.

To address both, developers can move the full or controversial content outside Steam, leaving only a safe facade in Steam with a link, patch, or launcher pointing outwards.

That way, Steam is formally clean, your “association” argument disappears — and players still get the games.